Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 587: Chapter 586: Old Friends Meeting, Particularly Teary-eyed

”Thud.”

The old hunter’s body fell to the ground while his head tumbled through the underbrush, finally coming to rest against a stone.

But the expression on the old hunter’s face bore no trace of pain or regret; instead, there was a look of relief.

”Ah... such a long time...”

The old hunter opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on Fang Zheng.

”I’m finally... freed from this nightmare... thank you... foreigner.”

”You’re welcome, it’s what I should do.”

Fang Zheng swung the greatsword, flicking the blood from its blade clean. He looked once more at the old hunter, who offered a faint smile.

”I can feel it... your soul... your blood... I hope, you can end this nightm—”

But the old hunter didn’t finish his sentence. His head and body turned into ashes at that moment, vanishing into the air.

At the same time, a vivid red light enveloped the entire garden.

Fang Zheng turned around, only to see the silver moon had disappeared, replaced by a huge blood-red moon. A dark shadow emerged from within the blood moon, slowly descending.

It resembled a moving skeleton, its upper body not much different from a human’s, only much larger. However, its legs were unusually short; behind its body, several tentacle-like tendrils swayed. Not only that, but the creature’s ”hair” rose upward as though it were some kind of tentacle too. Its face was grotesquely twisted, featuring nothing but five hollows that seemed to represent facial features.

”Come... welcome to my dream... hunter... I am the deity of the moon, submit to me, and you shall attain eternal truth...”

A whisper echoed in Fang Zheng’s ears as the creature landed, slowly extending its hands towards him.

”Come here, let us enter a new dream together...”

The voice was so illusory yet so tempting, playing on the most primal desires deep within one’s heart. However, Fang Zheng stood motionless, frowning and squinting his eyes, scrutinizing the creature before him in great detail.

”...”

Perhaps Fang Zheng’s reaction was unexpected, and the creature didn’t seem to know how to proceed. But in the next moment, Fang Zheng’s gaze, directed at the moon deity before him, grew more and more bizarre. He revealed a look of disbelief, staring intently at the moon deity and then spoke slowly...

”...Eldritch?”

”...?!”

Hearing his name uttered by Fang Zheng, the moon deity’s head jerked upward—even though its ugly face bore no expression, its movements betrayed its reaction. Watching the moon deity’s reaction, Fang Zheng instantly flew into a rage.

”Damn it, it really is you, you bastard! You’re still not dead and gone? Still stirring up trouble here?!”

For Fang Zheng, Eldritch was not an unfamiliar name. He had fought against him in the world of Black Soul. As a King of Salary, Eldritch was the one whom Fang Zheng found most revolting. The reason was simple: he had a penchant for eating people!

Indeed, Eldritch was once a Holy Practitioner of Lothric who had a taste for human flesh and ultimately was imprisoned in the Abyssal Cathedral. Moreover, the king had dispatched many Holy Practitioners to seal him, but they were all corroded by Eldritch’s deeply dark Abyssal Power and were consumed.

After devouring a multitude of fresh lives, Eldritch gained the powerful Power of Darkness and was designated as a King of Salary to prolong the Primordial Fire. His sinful life should have ended there, but in that era of waning fire, Eldritch awoke once more, unchanging in his ways, and colluded with Pope Sullivan, devouring Gwyndolin, the younger son of the Sun King.

The series of insane acts by Eldritch stemmed from his foresight that the fires would eventually die out and the age of fireless deep sea would arrive. Desperate for the power to survive through this lengthy deep sea age, he sought to devour the strength of others to support himself through that prolonged period.

However, in the world of Black Soul, Eldritch didn’t have the chance to fully consume Gwyndolin before he was slain by Fang Zheng and dragged onto the throne as fuel. But to Fang Zheng’s surprise... the scoundrel had rekindled from the ashes and survived until now?

In fact, when Fang Zheng left Maria’s dream, he vaguely sensed that all of this might have something to do with Eldritch. After absorbing the power of the Moonlight Greatsword held by the knight named Ludwig, he immediately discovered that this power originated from the Shadow Sun — in other words, the Dark Moon Sword Gwyndolin.

Moreover, after absorbing the power of the Moonlight Greatsword, Fang Zheng also felt a connection to this dreamscape — that is to say, the Anan Dream he was in was actually shaped by this power. Considering that Gwyndolin excelled in creating illusions, it wasn’t entirely far-fetched to think that the dream world was shaped by Gwyndolin’s power.

But if this world was indeed the future of the Black Soul World that Fang Zheng had once experienced and Gwyndolin was dead, then who else would possess his power?

There was only one answer!

It was Eldritch!

Fang Zheng had also suspected Hikara Yuru, but when he killed Orphan of Kos and watched the foolish Rom die, he felt something was amiss. He could sense that when these descendants of the Ancient Gods and members of the Enchanted Clan died, their powers were silently and secretly devoured!

And such disgusting acts of consuming corpses was not something that Hikara Yuru, the natural ditz, would do; in contrast, Eldritch had done this so many times it was second nature!

”So, you’ve been manipulating everything from behind?”

The more Fang Zheng thought about it, the more certain he became. Initially, he thought Byronvis’ excavation of the ruins was suicidal, but now, Fang Zheng was beginning to suspect that this bastard had a hand in everything. He knew that the Ancient Gods would stop at nothing in their search for progeny, and if Byronvis studied and attempted to contact the Ancient Gods, it would call other Abyssal creatures here to perform rituals to leave behind their heirs.

During this process, Eldritch could ”guide” or ”reveal” to the Hunters of the Healing Church and the Ancient Gods, allowing them to slaughter each other. He would then take the opportunity to profit from their misfortune by devouring the powers of those dead Ancient Gods and their remaining godly offspring!

The evidence of this was Ludwig stating that the radiance of the greatsword had guided his path... and according to Maria, Ludwig was a high-ranking Knight of the Holy Sword in the Healing Church. Besides his own formidable power, another reason for his high position was surely his ability to influence the decisions and commands of the Healing Church!

And if all of this had indeed been orchestrated by Eldritch from behind the scenes, then the suicidal actions of the Healing Church could be explained!

”Who are you?!”

At this moment, the Moon God’s voice was no longer as dreamy and calm as before; instead, it was filled with rage and panic. Hearing the Moon God’s question, Fang Zheng gripped the greatsword in his hand.

”Who am I? Eldritch, have you come down with senile dementia that you have even forgotten me?”

No sooner had he spoken than Fang Zheng tightly gripped his greatsword and swung it vigorously. The next moment, a bright red flame appeared on his Pitch Black Greatsword.

Seeing this burning flame, the Moon God let out a terrified scream and scrambled backward in disarray.

”No... You, you can’t be... How could you possibly appear here? Ashen one without fire!”

”I’ve come for you, big brother.”

Looking at the panicked Moon God in front of him, Fang Zheng let out a cold, sneering laugh.

”How did you end up looking like this? What’s with those stubby little legs? Did you get indigestion after eating Gwyndolin?”

”This is all you’ve brought me! Ashen one without fire!”

At this moment, the Moon God finally bellowed in anger.

”To survive, I even sacrificed and devoured the avatar and soul of Gwyndolin, but at least, I could hope that the dying ember would last a bit longer. But what did you do? You extinguished the flame! You precipitated the Age of Deep Waters! And I have had to cling to life in this tattered skeleton! Perfect, I have been wanting to settle the score with you! The age of fire is over! The flame has been extinguished, and now it is the age of deep waters, the age of the Abyss! Your tiny flame is but a flicker in the wind!”

”Well then, let’s give it a try.”

Looking at the Moon God before him, Fang Zheng composed his expression, and with a fierce swipe of his greatsword, he pointed it at the enemy before him.

”I’ve prepared a furnace just for you, big brother, it’s time to pass on the flame.”